SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Sunday's series finale between No. 15/17 Gonzaga and San Francisco at Benedetti Diamond was just as back-and-forth an affair as Saturday's game two, but this time it was the Bulldogs who landed the final blow, putting 12 runs on the board over the final three frames to come away with a 17-13 series-clinching win.
The series victory is the Zags' fourth straight in conference play, with three of them coming on the road. GU now sits at 21-8 on the season and 9-3 in conference play, good for sole possession of first place in the league standings. Their 39 runs scored this weekend are the most scored by a GU squad in a three-game series since 2019.
"Unbelievably proud of our group — That was a dog fight all weekend, both yesterday and today, we took big punches and threw punches back," said GU Head Coach
Mark Machtolf. "Tons of huge individual efforts, but I can't emphasize enough how good our bench energy was. Every inning and every at-bat, investing in their teammates!"
Four different GU batters finished with multiple hits and eight picked up at least one RBI to round out a 15-hit day that yielded a season-high 17 runs.
Enzo Apodaca (3 RBI, 2 runs) went 4-for-4,
Grayson Sterling (3 RBI, 2 runs) went 2-for-3 with a team-high 3 walks, and
Ezra Samperi (1 run, 3 RBI) went 3-for-5 and
Tyler Rando (3 runs, 2 RBI) added a pair of knocks in the winning effort.
Five different pitchers took the mound for GU, with RHP
Owen Wild striking out six in a five-frame start and a quartet of relievers holding off the Dons late to clinch the win. RHP
Nico Zeglin (⅔ IP), RHP Jake Rutherford and LHP
Bradley Mullan (1 IP) threw through the sixth, and RHP
Michael Spellacy (2 ⅓ IP) held off a Dons rally late to earn his third win of the season.
GU jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the fourth off a pair of multi-RBI singles from Samperi and Apodaca, but fell behind 11-5 before rallying with a six-run seventh to equalize, retaking the lead with a two-run slam from
Cade McGee in the eighth that scored himself and Rando for a 13-12 advantage.
McGee's two-run shot spurred the fourth lead change of the game, but this time it'd stick. Spellacy got through the eighth without any damage after weathering a two-out triple from USF's Brandon Greim, and the Zags put up four insurance runs off a pair of two-RBI doubles from Rando and Sterling in the ninth to extend the lead to 17-12.
After Spellacy induced a groundout and picked off Nick Yovetich at first for the first two outs of the bottom of the ninth, Harris Williams III plated a run for the Dons with a left-field single to cut the lead to four and Gabe Giosso added a single of his own to threaten another late rally. But Spellacy responded with an emphatic strikeout of Jordan Vujovich to end the game and seal the series win.
Series at a Glance
With the win, GU holds a 38-36-1 advantage in the all-time series. The Bulldogs' loss in 2021's series finale snapped a record run of five straight wins over USF — the two teams were tied up all-time prior to last season's series.
USF's last win before 2021 came in 2018, a 3-0 shutout at Benedetti Diamond in San Francisco. The two teams also have a rare tie on their record — a 2-2 final that took place in the finale of a three-game road series in 2010.
Up Next
The Zags play host to Portland (19-12, 6-6 WCC) in a three-game home series that begins Thursday. Tickets, game times, live stats and streaming options are available on GoZags.com — follow @zagbaseball on Instagram and Twitter for live updates, highlights and more.
